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Lithuanian language
*** Shopping-Tip: Lithuanian language
{{language
|name=Lithuanian
|nativename=lietuvių kalba
|states=
Lithuania and 18 other countries
|speakers=4 million
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=
Baltic languages Baltic
|fam3=
Eastern Baltic languages Eastern Baltic
|nation=
Lithuania,
European Union
|agency=
Commission of the Lithuanian Language
|iso1=lt|iso2=lit|iso3=lit}}
'''Lithuanian''' is the official language of
Lithuania, spoken by about 4 million native speakers (
Lithuanians). The Lithuanian name for the language is ''lietuvių kalba''.
History
Lithuanian still retains many of the original peculiarities of phonetics and nominal morphology of the prototypical
Indo-European language and has therefore been the focus of much study in the area of
Indo-European languages Indo-European linguistics. There is evidence to suggest the existence of a
Balto-Slavic languages Balto-Slavic language group after the breakup of Proto-Indo-European, with the Slavic and Baltic languages then splitting perhaps around the
10th century BC. However, this is disputed by many linguists. While the possession of many archaic features is undeniable, the exact manner by which the Baltic languages have developed from the Proto-Indo-European language is not clear.
The Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between
400s 400 AD and
600s 600. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after
800s 800, with a long period of being one language but different dialects. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the
14th century or
15th century, and perhaps as late as the
17th century. Also, the
13th century 13th- and
14th century 14th-century occupation of the western part of the
Daugava basin (almost coinciding with the territory of modern
Latvia) by
Germany German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages' independent development.
The earliest-known written Lithuanian text is a hymnal translation from
1545. Printed books exist from
1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the
18th century and books were not commonly available. In
1864, following the
January Uprising,
Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, the Russian Governor General of Lithuania, banned the language in education and publishing, and barred use of the Latin
alphabet altogether, although books printed in Lithuanian continued to be printed across the border in
East Prussia and in the
United States. Smuggled into the country despite stiff prison sentences, they helped fuel growing nationalist sentiment that finally led to the lifting of the ban in
1904. Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since
1918. During the Soviet occupation (see
History of Lithuania), it was used in official affairs alongside
Russian language Russian which, as the official language of the
Soviet Union USSR, took precedence over Lithuanian.
Classification
Lithuanian is one of two living
Baltic languages (along with
Latvian language Latvian). The
Baltic languages form their own distinct branch of the
Indo-European languages.
Geographic distribution
Lithuanian is spoken mainly in
Lithuania. It is spoken also by native ethnic Lithuanians living in today's
Belarus,
Latvia,
Poland,
Kaliningrad Russia. It is also spoken by emigrant communities in
Argentina,
Australia,
Brazil,
Canada,
Estonia,
Ireland,
Russia,
Sweden, the
United Kingdom,
Uruguay and the
United States.
2,955,200 in Lithuania (including 3,460 Tatar) or about 80% of the population (1998) are native Lithuanian speakers, most of Lithuanian inhabitants of other nationalities speak Lithuanian to some extent too. The population total speaking Lithuanian for all countries is 4,000,000 (1993 UBS).
Official status
Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania.
Dialects
The Lithuanian language has two main dialects:
Aukstaitija AukÅ¡taitian (AukÅ¡taiÄ?ių, Highland Lithuanian) and
Samogitian language Samogitian (Samogitian, ŽemaiÄ?ių/Žemaitiu, Lowland Lithuanian). See maps at [http://samogitia.mch.mii.lt/KALBA/girdstr.en.htm#Map].
Standard Lithuanian is based on Western Aukštaitian. Intelligibility between Aukštaitian and Samogitian is considered difficult by most Lithuanians.
Sounds
Vowels
{{IPA notice}}
Lithuanian has 12 written vowels. In addition to the standard Roman letters, the
ogonek accent is used to indicate long vowels, and is a historical relic of a time when these vowels were nasalized (as ogonek vowels are in modern
Polish language Polish) and even earlier followed by an 'n' sound.
{| BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=0 RULES=ROWS FRAME=VOID STYLE="margin-left:3em; border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center"
! align="left" WIDTH=100|Majuscule
| WIDTH=25|A || WIDTH=25|Ä„
| WIDTH=25|E || WIDTH=25|Ę || WIDTH=25|Ė
| WIDTH=25|I || WIDTH=25|Ä® || WIDTH=25|Y
| WIDTH=25|O
| WIDTH=25|U || WIDTH=25|Ų || WIDTH=25|Ū
|-
! align="left"|Minuscule
| a || Ä…
| e || Ä™ || Ä—
| i || į || y
| o
| u || ų || ū
|-
! align="left"|
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA
| {{IPA|a}} || {{IPA|aË?}}
| {{IPA|É›}} || {{IPA|É›Ë?}} || {{IPA|eË?}}
| {{IPA|i}} || {{IPA|iË?}} || {{IPA|iË?}}
| {{IPA|o}}
| {{IPA|u}} || {{IPA|uË?}} || {{IPA|uË?}}
|}
Consonants
Lithuanian uses 20 consonant characters, drawn from the Roman alphabet. In addition, the digraph "Ch" represents a velar fricative (
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA [x]); the pronunciation of other digraphs can be deduced from their component elements.
{| BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=0 RULES=ROWS FRAME=VOID STYLE="margin-left:3em; border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center"
! align="left" WIDTH=100|Majuscule
| WIDTH=25|B || WIDTH=25|C || WIDTH=25|Č || WIDTH=25|D || WIDTH=25|F || WIDTH=25|G || WIDTH=25|H || WIDTH=25|J || WIDTH=25|K || WIDTH=25|L || WIDTH=25|M || WIDTH=25|N || WIDTH=25|P || WIDTH=25|R || WIDTH=25|S || WIDTH=25|Š|| WIDTH=25|T || WIDTH=25|V || WIDTH=25|Z || WIDTH=25|Ž
|-
! align="left"|Minuscule
| b || c || Ä? || d || f || g || h || j || k || l || m || n || p || r || s || Å¡ || t || v || z || ž
|-
! align="left"|
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA
| {{IPA|b}} || {{IPA|ts}} || {{IPA|ʧ}} || {{IPA|d}} || {{IPA|f}} || {{IPA|ɡ}} || {{IPA|ɣ}} || {{IPA|j}} || {{IPA|k}} || {{IPA|l}} || {{IPA|m}} || {{IPA|n}} || {{IPA|p}} || {{IPA|r}} || {{IPA|s}} || {{IPA|ʃ}} || {{IPA|t}} || {{IPA|ʋ}} || {{IPA|z}} || {{IPA|ʒ}}
|}
Phonology
=Consonants
=
{| BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=0 style="border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center"
! COLSPAN=2| !! labial !! dental !! alveo-
dental !! alveolar !! alveo-
palatal !! velar
|-
! ROWSPAN=2|stops !! voiceless
| p || t || || || || k
|-
! voiced
| b || d || || || || g
|-
! ROWSPAN=2|fricatives !! voiceless
| f || || s || || {{IPA|ʃ}} || x
|-
! voiced
| || || z || || {{IPA|Ê’}} || {{IPA|É£}}
|-
! ROWSPAN=2|affricates !! voiced
| || || {{IPA|ʣ}} || || {{IPA|ʤ}} ||
|-
! voiceless
| || || {{IPA|ʦ}} || || {{IPA|ʧ}} ||
|-
! COLSPAN=2|nasal
| m || || || n || ||
|-
! ROWSPAN=2|liquid !! lateral
| || || || l || ||
|-
! glide
| {{IPA|Ê‹}} || || || || || j
|-
! COLSPAN=2|rhotic trill
| || || || r || ||
|}
All consonants (except /j/) have two forms: palatalized and non-palatalized.
The consonants {{IPA|[f x ɣ]}} and their palatalized versions are only found in
loanwords.
(Adapted from [http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm].)
=Vowels
=
There are two possible ways to posit the Lithuanian vowel system. The traditional pattern has six long vowels and five short ones, with length as the distinctive feature:
{| BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=0 style="border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center"
! ROWSPAN=2| !! COLSPAN=2|Front !! ROWSPAN=2|Central !! COLSPAN=2|Back
|-
! Long !! Short !! Long !! Short
|-
! High
| {{IPA|iË?}} || i || || {{IPA|uË?}} || u
|-
! Mid
| eË? || || || {{IPA|oË?}} || o
|-
! Mid-low
| {{IPA|É›Ë?}} || {{IPA|É›}} || || ||
|-
! Low
| || || {{IPA|aË?}} || || {{IPA|a}}
|}
(Adapted from [http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm http://www.lituanus.org/1982_1/82_1_02.htm].)
However, at least one researcher suggests that a tense vs lax distinction may be the actual distinguishing feature, or at least equally important as length. Such a hypothesis yields the chart below, where 'long' and 'short' have been preserved to parallel the terminology used above.
{| BORDER=1 CELLSPACING=0 style="border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center"
! ROWSPAN=2| !! COLSPAN=2|Front !! COLSPAN=2|Back
|-
! Long !! Short !! Long !! Short
|-
! High
| {{IPA|iË?}}|| {{IPA|ɪ}} || {{IPA|uË?}} || {{IPA|ÊŠ}}
|-
! Mid
| {{IPA|eË?}} || || {{IPA|oË?}} || {{IPA|É”}}
|-
! Low
| æ || {{IPA|É›}} || {{IPA|aË?}} || {{IPA|É‘}}
|}
(Adapted from [http://www.lituanus.org/1972/72_1_05.htm http://www.lituanus.org/1972/72_1_05.htm].)
Grammar
''The main article is the
Lithuanian grammar''.
The Lithuanian language is a highly
inflected language where relationship between parts of speech and their roles in a sentence are expressed by numerous flexions.
There are two
grammatical genders in Lithuanian - feminine and masculine. There is no neutral gender per se, however there are some forms which are derived from the historical neutral gender, notably attributive adjectives. It has a free, mobile
lexical stress stress and is also characterized by
pitch accent.
It has five
noun and three
adjective declensions and three
verbal
grammatical conjugation conjugations. All verbs have
present tense present,
past tense past,
past iterative tense past iterative and
future tense future tenses of the
indicative mood,
subjunctive mood subjunctive (or
conditional mood conditional) and
imperative mood imperative grammatical mood moods (both without distinction of tenses) and
infinitive. These forms, except the infinitive, are conjugative, having two singular, two plural persons and the third person form common both for plural and singular. Lithuanian has the richest
participle system of all Indo-European languages, having participles derived from all tenses with distinct active and passive forms, and several gerund forms. Nouns and other declinable words are declined in seven cases:
nominative,
genitive,
dative,
Accusative case accusative,
instrumental_case instrumental,
Locative_case locative, and
Vocative_case vocative. In older Lithuanian texts three additional varieties of the locative case are found:
Illative_case illative,
Adessive_case adessive and
Allative_case allative. The most common are the
Illative_case illative, which still is used, mostly in spoken language, and the
Allative_case allative, which survives in the standard language in some idiomatic usages. The adessive is nearly extinct.
The first prescriptive grammar book of Lithuanian was written in
Latin by
Daniel Klein and published in
Kaliningrad Königsberg in 1653. The first scientific ''Compendium of Lithuanian language'' was published 1856/57 by
August Schleicher, a professor at
Prague University.
Today there are two definitive books on Lithuanian Grammar: in English - "Introduction to Modern Lithuanian" (called "Beginner's Lithuanian" in newer editions) by
Leonardas Dambriūnas,
Antanas Klimas and
William R. Schmalstieg and in Russian -
Vytautas Ambrazas' "Grammatika Litovskogo Jazyka" ("The Grammar of the Lithuanian Language").
Vocabulary
Lexical borrowings in the language
Purists strongly believe that foreign influence on their native language is a bad thing, and while the basic vocabulary of the Lithuanian language does not possess many loan words, there are some that are called ''senieji skoliniai'' (old loans) which were borrowed from close neighbours a long time ago. Such words include ''stiklas'', "glass" (Slavic origin; cf. Russian "steklo"), ''muilas'', "soap" (Slavic origin; cf. Russian "mylo"), ''gatvÄ—'', "street" ("gatvo", Slavic; "paved road", esp. in wetlands), ''spinta'' ("der Spind", German; a generic term for storage furniture, such as cupboard, wardrobe, bookcase, etc.). These words are not likely to be changed because of their antiquity. Other borrowed words are international words that can be found in many languages like ''telefonas'', ''ciklas'', ''schema'' etc. These words come from
Latin or
Ancient Greek and are not "dangerous" from the point of view of language purists (since those languages do not exist anymore). However, there are many words of foreign origin that have Lithuanian counterparts, and thus should not be used. Such words previously came from Russian in the past, but now that Lithuania has regained its independence in 1991, English is starting to have increasingly stronger influence over Lithuanian and many words have recently flooded the language (like ''dispenseris'', ''hakeris'' or ''singlas''). The influence of loan words is being discussed at present, but finding appropriate Lithuanian counterparts for these words is often a difficult job.
Indo-European vocabulary
Lithuanian is considered one of the more conservative modern Indo-European languages, and certain Lithuanian words are very similar to their
Sanskrit counterparts. Words such as ''sūnus'' for ''son'' and ''avis'' for sheep are exactly the same, and many others differ only slightly such as ''dūmas'' for smoke (''dhumas'' in Sanskrit), ''antras'' for second (''antaras'' in Sanskrit) and ''vilkas'' for wolf (vrkas in Sanskrit). However, Lithuanian verbal morphology shows many innovations.
Lithuanian has some vocabulary items descended from the proto-language which are also attested also in
Latin. Examples include the following nouns (Latin first, then the Lithuanian cognate): ''rota — ratas'' (wheel), ''senex — senis'' (old man), ''vir — vyras'' (man), ''anguis — angis'' (snake), ''linum — linas'' (rope or thread), ''aro — ariu'' (to plow), ''iungo — jungiu'' (to join), ''duo — du'' (two), ''tres — trys'' (three), ''septem — septyni'' (seven), ''gentes — gentys'' (tribe), ''mensis — mėnesis'' (month), ''dentes — dantys'' (teeth), ''noctes — naktys'' (nights), ''sedes — sėdau'' (seat).
Writing system
Like many of the Indo-European languages, Lithuanian employs a modified
Roman alphabet Roman script. It is comprised of 32
letters. The
collation order presents one surprise: "Y" is moved to occur between "Ä®" (I ogonek) and "J".
{| border=0 style="border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center"
| width=15|A || width=15|Ą || width=15|B || width=15|C || width=15|Č || width=15|D || width=15|E || width=15|Ę
| width=15|Ä– || width=15|F || width=15|G || width=15|H || width=15|I || width=15|Ä® || width=15|Y || width=15|J
| width=15|K || width=15|L || width=15|M || width=15|N || width=15|O || width=15|P || width=15|R || width=15|S
| width=15|Š|| width=15|T || width=15|U || width=15|Ų || width=15|Ū || width=15|V || width=15|Z || width=15|Ž
|-
|a ||Ä… ||b ||c ||Ä? ||d ||e ||Ä™
|ė ||f ||g ||h ||i ||į ||y ||j
|k ||l ||m ||n ||o ||p ||r ||s
|š ||t ||u ||ų ||ū ||v ||z ||ž
|}
Acute, grave, and macron/tilde accents can be used to mark
stress (linguistics) stress and
vowel length. However, these are generally not written, except in dictionaries and where needed for clarity. In addition, the following digraphs are used, but are treated as sequences of two letters for collation purposes. It should be noted that the "Ch" digraph represents a velar fricative, while the others are straightforward compositions of their component letters.
{| border=0 width=200 style="border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center"
|Ch ||Dz ||Dž|
|-
|ch ||dz ||dž|
|}
Examples
*Lithuanian: Lietuviškai ("lietuvishkai",
simplified phonetic transcription for Lithuanian (wikipedia) simplified Lithuanian transcription [lÄet'''u'''viʃkaÄ])
*Hello (informally): labas ("lahbas", [l'''Ä?'''bas])
*Goodbye (informally): iki! ("iki'", [ik'''i'''])
*Please: praÅ¡au ("prashau", [praʃa'''Å'''])
*Thank you: aÄ?iÅ« ("ahchjooh", ['''Ä?'''tʃ
iū])
*That one: tas (masculine), ta (feminine) ("tas, ta")
*How much (does it cost)?: kiek kainuoja? ("kjek kainuoja", [kÄek kain'''Ç”o'''ja])
*Yes: taip ([ta'''Ä'''p])
*No: ne ("ne")
*Sorry: atsipraÅ¡au ("Atsiprashau", [atsipraʃa'''Å'''])
*I don't understand: nesuprantu ([nesuprant'''u'''])
*Do you speak English?: (ar) kalbate angliÅ¡kai? ([/ar/ k'''a'''lbate Ä?ngliʃkaÄ ?])
*Where is ...?: Kur yra? ([k'''u'''r Ä«r'''a'''?])
See also
*
Martynas Mažvydas
*
Lithuanian Swadesh list Swadesh list of Lithuanian words
External links
{{InterWiki|code=lt}}
-
Lithuanian linguistics
-
Ethnologue report for Lithuanian
-
Pages and Forums on the Lithuanian History
-
Diacritics Project — All you need to design a font with correct accents
-
The Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language
-
The Historical Grammar of Lithuanian language
-
Lithuanian English Dictionary from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
{{Official EU languages}}
Category:Baltic languages
Category:East Baltic languages
Category:Languages of Lithuania
Category:Lithuanian language
af:Litaus
ar:لغة ليتوانية
bg:ЛитовÑ?ки език
ca:LituÃ
da:Litauisk (sprog)
de:Litauische Sprache
et:Leedu keel
el:Λιθουανική γλώσσα
es:Idioma lituano
eo:Litova lingvo
fr:Lituanien
id:Bahasa Lituania
it:Lingua lituana
he:ליט×?ית
kw:Lithywanek
la:Lingua Lithuana
lv:Lietuviešu valoda
lt:Lietuvių kalba
li:Litauws
hu:Litván nyelv
mk:ЛитванÑ?ки јазик
nl:Litouws
ja:リトアニア語
no:Litauisk språk
nn:Litauisk språk
pl:Język litewski
pt:LÃngua lituana
ro:Limba lituaniană
ru:ЛитовÑ?кий Ñ?зык
se:Liettuvagiella
sl:LitovÅ¡Ä?ina
fi:Liettuan kieli
sv:Litauiska
zh:立陶宛è¯
see
Lithuanian language
Category: Baltic languages
Category:Languages of Lithuania
ru:КатегориÑ?:ЛитовÑ?кий Ñ?зык
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